Why are sex education course skipping over important topics?

Last updated on October 6, 2020

Question

Hi,

I would just like to say how beneficial your website has been to myself, helping me understand exactly what I needed to know about puberty. I discovered your website when I was 14 (I’m now 17), and it really helped because my school’s sex education teaching was so brief that we didn’t get taught about anything properly. An example of this was in books we were given that just said, “wet dreams happen,” and that was as much as they talked about it.

I’m a Christian and although I do have slightly different views on certain things from what is portrayed on the website, it didn’t really affect me too much. I think looking back on it now I would have been angry at myself for having to masturbate, if it wasn’t for the website, as well being able to find out that other people asked many other questions that I also wanted to know.

As far as I’ve seen, pornography and online porn today have caused a really bad effect on people my age. Thankfully I have never been on porn sites or anything like that as for some reason I just never got tempted to look at porn. What has been clear, though, is that many boys are addicted to pornography, summed up by the NHS in the UK saying that there have been a lot more teens being diagnosed with erectile dysfunction as a result of being desensitized to what normal sex would be like.

The other problem is that the puberty books in schools fail to mention pornography in general as if it doesn’t exist.

I would like to thank you, though, for everything you do with the site as it really does become so beneficial to anyone really, regardless of race or even religious choice.

My question is though, why are important things like masturbation, pornography, etc. being left out or skimmed over in sex education?

Thanks.

Answer:

It is difficult for me to comment on the choices other people make. It could be a variety of things:

  • Wanting to avoid controversy in the mistaken notion that non-controversial topics give you a bigger audience.
  • Not wanting to acknowledge that there might be problems or alternative views to your own view. Thus, if you don’t mention it, you don’t have to consider it.
  • Not really understanding the issue. For example, females have a difficult time understanding the male’s need to ejaculate because they don’t experience it. A female author would have a difficult time writing about those topics because the lack of personal experience makes it feel unreal.

Glad to hear that you have found the material on this site useful. While you might disagree about some religious points, I hope that I have provided enough citations from the Bible that you at least know why I hold the positions that I do.